1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a holder with an adhesive that exhibits temporary and permanent adhesive characteristics for removably and repositionably holding an object on a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many instances when an object must be supported at least temporarily on a substrate. The substrate may be a wall, a door, a cabinet, a desk, a computer, a notebook or the like. The object to be retained on the substrate also can take many forms, such as a photograph, a poster, a calendar, a memorandum, a recipe, a business card, a wire, a decoration or the like.
Objects that are intended for fairly permanent mounting on a substrate may be framed and mounted with picture hooks or other types of mounting hardware that are nailed, screwed or otherwise permanently embedded in the substrate. Other objects may be adhered to the substrate with a permanent adhesive.
There are many other instances where the object will be mounted to the substrate for only a limited duration. For example, a college student may want to decorate a dorm room with posters or photographs. However the dorm room wall must be substantially in its initial condition at the end of the school year. Hence, nails, screws and the like generally are not suitable for mounting objects on the walls of a college dorm room. Additionally, most students and their parents would prefer not to invest significant amounts of money to frame the various posters and photographs that a college student is likely to display in a dorm room.
Push pins sometimes are used to tack a poster, photograph or calendar to a wall. However, push pins damage the object that is to be mounted and inflict at least minimal damage to the wall or other substrate. Furthermore, many walls are too hard to accept a push pin.
Adhesive tape often is used to mount sheet material, such as posters and photographs, on a wall. The tape may be stretched across the corners of the poster, photograph or other sheet shaped object that is being mounted. However, this mounting method is unsightly and will permanently damage the front face of the object that is mounted. Additionally, many types of adhesive tape leave a residue on the substrate. The residue often is difficult to remove and will retain dirt if not removed completely. Adhesive tape can be formed into a loop with the adhesive surface facing outwardly. Several such loops of adhesive tape then can be affixed to the rear face of the poster, photograph or other sheet shaped object. The poster or photograph then is pressed against the wall. This approach avoids the unsightly appearance of tape stretching across the external corners of the sheet. However, the tape still may leave a residue when the poster, photograph or the like is removed. Furthermore, it is difficult to remove the sheet from the wall and it is difficult to remove the tape from the sheet without permanently damaging the poster, photograph or other such sheet. Double-sided adhesive tape can be used in place of the above-described loops of one-sided adhesive tape. However, double-sided adhesive tape suffers from the same problems as the adhesive tape loops.
The above-described mounting needs and problems occur in many environments other than college dorms. For example, younger children often want to display photographs or posters that are relevant to the particular age of the child. The poster or photographs quickly become dated and passe as the child moves from one age bracket to another and as popular culture evolves.
Kitchens, family rooms and doors in homes are other common places for displaying calendars, notes, photographs, report cards, recipes and the like. Most such mountings are very temporary in nature and should be carried out to avoid damage to either the substrate or the object that is being mounted.
A demand also exists for mounting objects to a substrate in the workplace. For example, a weekly or monthly to-do-list often is mounted prominently, but is changed frequently. A business card may be removably mounted to an office door or to a brochure that is being delivered to a customer. Permanent adhesives and permanent adhesive tapes are undesirable for most of these applications. In particular, most permanent adhesives and adhesive tapes will damage both the substrate and the object that is being temporarily affixed to the substrate.
Rubber-like removable adhesive blocks are useful for some situations. These blocks come in many different plan view configurations including squares, circles and elongate strips. The thickness varies from proximally ⅛-¼ inch. These adhesive products can be pressed against the rear surface of the object to be mounted. The object then is pressed against the substrate. These adhesive products generally can be removed without permanently damaging a wall door, cabinet or the like. However, a thin flexible object, such as a poster, photograph, memorandum, calendar or such is likely to be torn or delaminated in an attempt to remove the object from the substrate or in an attempt to remove the adhesive block from the object. The bulkiness of these adhesive blocks also can cause visually apparent lumps when applied to a thin object, such as a poster or photograph.
Post-it® notes are used widely for writing short memoranda, comments or instructions and can be affixed removably to some substrates. The Post-it® notes generally are rectangular sheets with a thin area of a repositionable adhesive along one edge. The sheets are held in a pad form by the removable adhesive. The note sheets then can be removed one-by-one and temporarily affixed to a substrate. The user then can write a short note on the Post-it®. Post-it® notes generally are not well-suited for supporting an object on a substrate.
In view of the above, it is an object of the subject invention to provide holders for mounting an object removably to a substrate.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method for mounting an object on a substrate.